How to Build Self-Knowledge: Discovering Who You Are

Self-knowledge is a skill not a trait talent or divine insight. Thats the good news. The bad news is that the self is a wilderness. Without tremendous effort we will suffer from what we dont know about ourselves. Most people struggle to live a life filled with purpose and meaning and instead get caught up in day to day stuff that drains them and leaves them unfulfilled. Their relationships suffer their career goes stagnant and theyre stuck. Lao Tzu the ancient Chinese philosopher who lived in the 6th century BCE wrote He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened. Similarly Carl Jung said Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakes. The sum total of philosophic inquiry is said to have been summarized by Socrates who said Know thyself. Plato similarly phrased it The unexamined life is not worth living. At Big Self School we help those who want to develop deeper relationships do work that matters and fully live out who theyre supposed to be. That quest begins with the work of self-knowledge.